Timeless Classics.......?

To quote a movie character, "Just cause it's old, doesn't make it classic!"

I'll put an asterisk next to the ones I have ever read. Uh huh.

Timeless Classics

An old Chinese proverb says, 'A book is like a garden in the pocket.' Many of us who have valued reading in our early years derive enjoyment from reading to our children, and now, as I do, to our grandchildren. Books are voyages of discovery and transforming instruments to all of us.

A few years ago, the National Endowment for the Humanities asked schools around the country to send reading lists of their favorite books. Noticing how often books that other generations have enjoyed appear on these lists, we decided to make this compilation of tried-and- true titles. The works herein, published in 1960 or earlier, have delighted generations of readers.

Some have asked, 'Is the book dead?' as we move into new computer technologies. Not at all. Print text will co-exist with these new mediums.


As concerned parents, educators, and counselors, we must continue to emphasize the importance of access to good reading in order to shape our students’ learning process, enhance their understanding of American heritage, and open up a new world of self-fulfillment. As Aldous Huxley said, 'The proper study of mankind is books.'

There are some excellent older books that are missing from the list, because they appeared too infrequently in the school selections: Kate Douglas Wiggin’s Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, for example; Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales; Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Despite the absences, we hope this compilation will nevertheless bring hours of pleasure and enlightenment.

The titles presented for suggested extracurricular reading provide a solid foundation and hours of enjoyment for students and scholars of all ages.

We at NEH hope that the 'Timeless Classics' booklist will continue to be a rich source of material for everyone.

Sheldon Hackney Chairman


'Books are humanity in print' ...Barbara Tuchman

'Literature is an investment of genius which pays dividends to all subsequent times.' ...John Burroughs

'All that mankind has done, thought, gained, or been: it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books.' ...Thomas Carlyle



### Kindergarten through Grade 6 ###

Adamson, Joy Born Free

Aesop Fables*

Alcott, Louisa May Little Women

*Andersen, Hans Christian Fairy tales

Atwater, Richard and Florence Mr. Popper’s Penguins*

Bailey, Carolyn Sherwin Miss Hickory

Recommended for K-3, either for reading by children or for reading to them.

*Barrie, J.M. Peter Pan

Baum, L. Frank The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

*Bemelmans, Ludwig Madeline series* A favorite of mine!

Bond, Michael A Bear Called Paddington

Boston, L.M. The Children of Green Knowe

Brink, Carol Ryrie Caddie Woodlawn

Brown, Margaret Wise Goodnight, Moon*


Brunhoff, Jean de The Story of Babar*

Burnett, Frances Hodgson The Secret Garden

*Burton, Virginia Lee Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel*

Butterworth, Oliver The Enormous Egg

Clark, Ann Nolan Secret of the Andes

Cleary, Beverly Henry Huggins series

Coatsworth, Elizabeth The Cat Who Went to Heaven

Dalgliesh, Alice The Bears on Hemlock Mountain* The Courage of Sarah Noble*

De Angeli, Marguerite The Door in the Wall

De Jong, Meindert The House of Sixty Fathers The Wheel on the School

*Dodge, Mary Mapes Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates

Du Bois, William Pene The Twenty-One Balloons

Edmonds, Walter D. The Matchlock Gun

Estes, Eleanor Ginger Pye Moffats series

Farley, Walter The Black Stallion

Field, Rachel Hitty, Her First Hundred Years

Fritz, Jean The Cabin Faced West

Gilbreth, Frank B. and Ernestine G. Carey Cheaper By the Dozen

Gipson, Fred Old Yeller

Godden, Rumer The Mousewife*

Grahame, Kenneth The Reluctant Dragon* The Wind in the Willows f

Gray, Elizabeth Janet Adam of the Road

*Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s Fairy Tales

Hawes, Charles The Dark Frigate

Haywood, Carolyn Betsy series*

Henry, Marguerite King of the Wind Misty of Chincoteague

Keith, Harold Rifles for Watie

Kelly, Eric The Trumpeter of Krakow

Kipling, Rudyard Captains Courageous Just So Stories for Little Children* The Jungle Books

Kjelgaard, Jim Big Red

Knight, Eric Lassie Come Home

Krumgold, Joseph ...and Now Miguel Onion John

LaFarge, Oliver Laughing Boy

Lamb, Charles and Mary Tales from Shakespear

Latham, Jean Lee Carry on, Mr. Bowditch

Lawson, Robert Ben & Me Rabbit Hill

Leaf, Munro The Story of Ferdinand*

Lear, Edward Book of Nonsense*

Lenski, Lois Strawberry Girl

Lewis, C.S. Chronicles of Narnia series

Lindgren, Astrid Pippi Longstocking series

Lofting, Hugh Doctor Doolittle series

*London, Jack The Call of the Wild White Fang

*MacDonald, Betty Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle*

MacGregor, Ellen Miss Pickerell series

McCloskey, Robert Blueberries for Sal* Homer Price Make Way for Ducklings*

McSwigan, Marie Snow Treasure

Meigs, Cornelia Invincible Louisa

Milne, A.A. The House at Pooh Corner* Now We Are Six* When We Were Very Young* Winnie-the-Pooh*

Minarik, Else Holmelund Little Bear

Montgomery, L.M. Anne of Green Gables

Mukerji, Dhan Ghopal Gay-Neck, the Story of a Pigeon

Norton, Mary The Borrowers series

O’Hara, Mary My Friend Flicka

Pearce, Philippa Tom’s Midnight Garden

Perrault, Charles Cinderella*

*Potter, Beatrix The Tale of Peter Rabbit*

Pyle, Howard The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood

Rey, H.A. Curious George series*

Richter, Conrad The Light in the Forest

Selden, George The Cricket in Times Square*

Seuss, Dr. The Cat in the Hat* (Seuss is the anti-christ,banned in my family!)
Sewell, Anna Black Beauty

Sorenson, Virginia Miracles on Maple Hill

Speare, Elizabeth George The Witch of Blackbird Pond

Sperry, Armstrong Call It Courage

Spyri, Johanna Heidi

Steinbeck, John The Red Pony

Stevenson, Robert Louis A Child’s Garden of Verses* Kidnapped Treasure Island

Travers, Pamela L. Mary Poppins series

Van Loon, Hendrik The Story of Mankind

White, E.B. Charlotte’s Web Stuart Little

Wilder, Laura Ingalls Little House series

Williams, Margery The Velveteen Rabbit*

Wyss, Johann Swiss Family Robinson

Zion, Gene Harry the Dirty Dog*


Grades 7 and 8
Alcott, Louisa May Little Men

Bagnold, Enid National Velvet

Blackmore, Richard D. Lorna Doone

Boulle, Pierre The Bridge over the River Kwai

*Bradbury, Ray Dandelion Wine Fahrenheit 451 The Illustrated Man Martian Chronicles

Buchan, John The Thirty-Nine Steps

Bunyan, John The Pilgrim’s Progress

Carroll, Lewis Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Through the Looking Glass

Clark, Walter The Ox-Bow Incident

*Cooper, James Fenimore The Deerslayer The Last of the Mohicans

Curie, Eve Madame Curie: A Biography

Dana, Richard Henry Two Years before the Mast

Day, Clarence Life with Father

*Defoe, Daniel Robinson Crusoe

*Dickens, Charles A Christmas Carol

Douglas, Lloyd C. The Robe

Doyle, Arthur Conan Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

*Dumas, Alexander The Count of Monte Christo The Three Musketeers

Du Maurier, Daphne Rebecca

Edmonds, Walter D. Drums along the Mohawk

Ferber, Edna Cimarron

*Forbes, Esther Johnny Tremain

Forester, C.S. The African Queen The Hornblower series

Frank, Anne Diary of a Young Girl

*Frost, Robert Poems

Gallico, Paul The Snow Goose

Gunther, John Death Be Not Proud

Guthrie, A.B. The Big Sky

Haggard, H. Rider King Solomon’s Mines

Hansberry, Lorraine Raisin in the Sun

*Hemingway, Ernest The Old Man and the Sea

Hersey, John A Bell for Adano Hiroshima The Wall

*Heyerdahl, Thor Kon-Tiki

Hilton, James Goodbye, Mr. Chips Lost Horizon

Hudson, W.H. Green Mansions

Hughes, Richard A High Wind in Jamaica

Hugo, Victor The Hunchback of Notre Dame

*Irving, Washington The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Keller, Helen Story of My Life

Kennedy, John F. Profiles in Courage

Kipling, Rudyard Kim

Knowles, John A Separate Peace

*Lee, Harper To Kill a Mockingbird

*London, Jack The Sea Wolf

Lord, Walter A Night to Remember

*Malory, Sir Thomas Le Morte d’Arthur

Maxwell, Gavin Ring of Bright Water

McCullers, Carson Member of the Wedding

Michener, James The Bridges at Toko-Ri

Mitchell, Margaret Gone with the Wind

Nordhoff, Charles and J.N. Hall Mutiny on the Bounty

O’Dell, Scott Island of the Blue Dolphins

Orczy, Baroness Emma The Scarlet Pimpernel

Paton, Alan Cry, the Beloved Country

Pyle, Howard Men of Iron

*Rawlings, Marjorie Kinnan The Yearling

Renault, Mary The King Must Die

Roberts, Kenneth Northwest Passage

Saint-Exupery, Antoine de The Little Prince Wind, Sand and Stars

Saki Stories

Schaefer, Jack Shane

*Scott, Sir Walter Ivanhoe

*Shelley, Mary Frankenstein

*Smith, Betty A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Steinbeck, John The Pearl Tortilla Flat

Stevenson, Robert Louis The Black Arrow The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

*Stoker, Bram Dracula

Thurber, James The Thurber Carnival

Tolkien, J.R.R. The Hobbit The Lord of the Rings



*Twain, Mark The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The Adventures of Tom Sawyer A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court Innocents Abroad Life on the Mississippi The Prince and the Pauper

*Verne, Jules Around the World in Eighty Days Journey to the Center of the Earth Mysterious Island 20,000 Leagues under the Sea

Wallace, Lewis Ben-Hur

Washington, Booker T. Up from Slavery

*Wells, H.G. The Time Machine War of the Worlds

Wharton, Edith Ethan Frome

Wilder, Thornton The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Wister, Owen The Virginian

Yates, Elizabeth Amos Fortune, Free Man


### Grades 9 through 12 ###

Agee, James A Death in the Family

Anderson, Sherwood Winesburg, Ohio

Austen, Jane Emma Northanger Abbey Pride and Prejudice Sense and Sensibility

Baldwin, James Go Tell It on the Mountain



Balzac, Honore de Pere Goriot

Beckett, Samuel Waiting for Godot

*The Bible Old Testament New Testament

Bolt, Robert A Man for All Seasons

Bronte, Charlotte Jane Eyre

Bronte, Emily Wuthering Heights

*Browning, Robert Poems

*Buck, Pearl The Good Earth

Butler, Samuel The Way of All Flesh

Camus, Albert The Plague The Stranger

Cather, Willa Death Comes for the Archbishop My Antonia

Cervantes, Miguel Don Quixote

*Chaucer, Geoffrey The Canterbury Tales

Chekhov, Anton The Cherry Orchard

Chopin, Kate The Awakening

Collins, Wilkie The Moonstone

Conrad, Joseph Heart of Darkness Lord Jim The Secret Sharer Victory

*Crane, Stephen The Red Badge of Courage

Dante The Divine Comedy

Defoe, Daniel Moll Flanders

*Dickens, Charles Bleak House David Copperfield Great Expectations Hard Times Oliver Twist A Tale of Two Cities

*Dickinson, Emily Poems

Dinesen, Isak Out of Africa

Dostoevski, Fyodor Brothers Karamazov Crime and Punishment

Dreiser, Theodore An American Tragedy Sister Carrie

*Eliot, George Adam Bede Middlemarch Mill on the Floss Silas Marner

Eliot, T.S. Murder in the Cathedral

*Ellison, Ralph Invisible Man

*Emerson, Ralph Waldo Essays

Faulkner, William Absalom, Absalom! As I Lay Dying Intruder in the Dust Light in August The Sound and the Fury

Fielding, Henry Joseph Andrews Tom Jones

*Fitzgerald, F. Scott The Great Gatsby Tender Is the Night

Flaubert, Gustave Madame Bovary

Forster, E.M. A Passage to India A Room with a View

Franklin, Benjamin The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

Galsworthy, John The Forsyte Saga

Golding, William Lord of the Flies

Goldsmith, Oliver She Stoops to Conquer

Graves, Robert I, Claudius

Greene, Graham The Heart of the Matter The Power and the Glory

Hamilton, Edith Mythology

Hardy, Thomas Far From the Madding Crowd Jude the Obscure The Mayor of Casterbridge The Return of the Native Tess of the D’Urbervilles

*Hawthorne, Nathaniel The House of the Seven Gables The Scarlet Letter

*Hemingway, Ernest A Farewell to Arms For Whom the Bell Tolls The Sun Also Rises

*Henry, O. Stories

Hersey, John A Single Pebble

Hesse, Hermann Demian Siddhartha Steppenwolf

*Homer The Iliad The Odyssey

Hughes, Langston Poems

Hugo, Victor Les Miserables

*Huxley, Aldous Brave New World

Ibsen, Henrik A Doll’s House An Enemy of the People Ghosts Hedda Gabler The Master Builder The Wild Duck

*James, Henry The American Daisy Miller Portrait of a Lady The Turn of the Screw

Joyce, James Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man Dubliners

Kafka, Franz The Castle Metamorphosis The Trial

Keats, John Poems

Kerouac, Jack On the Road

Koestler, Arthur Darkness at Noon

Lawrence, D.H. Sons and Lovers

Lawrence, Jerome and Robert E. Lee Inherit the Wind

Lewis, Sinclair Arrowsmith Babbitt Main Street

Llewellyn, Richard How Green Was My Valley

*Machiavelli The Prince

MacLeish, Archibald J.B.

Mann, Thomas Buddenbrooks The Magic Mountain

Marlowe, Christopher Dr. Faustus

*Maugham, Somerset Of Human Bondage

*McCullers, Carson The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

*Melville, Herman Billy Budd Moby-Dick Typee

*Miller, Arthur The Crucible Death of a Salesman

Monsarrat, Nicholas The Cruel Sea

O’Neill, Eugene The Emperor Jones A Long Day’s Journey into Night Mourning Becomes Electra

*Orwell, George Animal Farm 1984

Pasternak, Boris Doctor Zhivago

*Poe, Edgar Allan Short stories

Remarque, Erich All Quiet on the Western Front

Rolvaag, O.E. Giants in the Earth

Rostand, Edmond Cyrano de Bergerac

Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye

Sandburg, Carl Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years Abraham Lincoln: The War Years

Saroyan, William The Human Comedy

Sayers, Dorothy The Nine Tailors

Shakespeare, William Plays and sonnets

*Shaw, George Bernard Arms and the Man Major Barbara Pygmalion Saint Joan

Sheridan, Richard B. The School for Scandal

*Shute, Nevil On the Beach

Sinclair, Upton The Jungle

*Sophocles Antigone Oedipus Rex

*Steinbeck, John East of Eden The Grapes of Wrath Of Mice and Men

Stowe, Harriet Beecher Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Swift, Jonathan Gulliver’s Travels

Thackeray, William M. Vanity Fair

*Thoreau, Henry David Walden

Tolstoy, Leo Anna Karenina War and Peace

Trollope, Anthony Barchester Towers

Turgenev, Ivan Fathers and Sons

Twain, Mark Pudd’nhead Wilson

Updike, John Rabbit Run

Vergil The Aeneid

*Voltaire Candide

Warren, Robert Penn All the King’s Men

Waugh, Evelyn Brideshead Revisited A Handful of Dust

Wharton, Edith Age of Innocence

*White, T.H. The Once and Future King The Sword in the Stone

Wilde, Oscar The Importance of Being Earnest The Picture of Dorian Gray

*Wilder, Thornton Our Town

*Williams, Tennessee The Glass Menagerie A Streetcar Named Desire

*Wolfe, Thomas Look Homeward, Angel (Another favorite, introduced to me by my wife)

Woolf, Virginia Mrs. Dalloway To the Lighthouse

Wouk, Herman The Caine Mutiny

Wright, Richard Black Boy Native Son